Bulwer Coming Race

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Edw

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Edward Bulwer-Lytton

The Coming Race


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MAX MLLER


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C I.

I am a native of , in the United States of America.

My ancestors migrated from England in the reignof Charles II.; and my grandfather was not undis-tinguished in the War of Independence. My family,therefore, enjoyed a somewhat high social position inright of birth; and being also opulent, they were con-sidered disqualified for the public service. My fatheronce ran for Congress, but was signally defeated by histailor. After that event he interfered little in politics,and lived much in his library. I was the eldest of threesons, and sent at the age of sixteen to the old coun-try, partly to complete my literary education, partly to

commence my commercial training in a mercantilefirm at Liverpool. My father died shortly after I wastwenty-one; and being left well off, and having a tastefor travel and adventure, I resigned, for a time, all pur-suit of the almighty dollar, and became a desultorywanderer over the face of the earth.

In the year 18, happening to be in , I wasinvited by a professional engineer, with whom I had


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made acquaintance, to visit the recesses of the mine, upon which he was employed.

The reader will understand, ere he close this nar-rative, my reason for concealing all clue to the dis-trict of which I write, and will perhaps thank me forrefraining from any description that may tend to itsdiscovery.

Let me say, then, as briefly as possible, that I ac-

companied the engineer into the interior of the mine,and became so strangely fascinated by its gloomywonders, and so interested in my friends explora-tions, that I prolonged my stay in the neighbourhood,and descended daily, for some weeks, into the vaultsand galleries hollowed by nature and art beneath thesurface of the earth. The engineer was persuadedthat far richer deposits of mineral wealth than hadyet been detected, would be found in a new shaft thathad been commenced under his operations. In pierc-ing this shaft we came one day upon a chasm jagged

and seemingly charred at the sides, as if burst asun-der at some distant period by volcanic fires. Downthis chasm my friend caused himself to be loweredin a cage, having first tested the atmosphere by thesafety-lamp. He remained nearly an hour in the abyss.When he returned he was very pale, and with an anx-

ious, thoughtful expression of face, very different


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from its ordinary character, which was open, cheerful,and fearless.

He said briefly that the descent appeared to himunsafe, and leading to no result; and, suspending fur-ther operations in the shaft, we returned to the morefamiliar parts of the mine.

All the rest of that day the engineer seemed preoc-cupied by some absorbing thought. He was unusually

taciturn, and there was a scared, bewildered look inhis eyes, as that of a man who has seen a ghost. Atnight, as we two were sitting alone in the lodging weshared together near the mouth of the mine, I said tomy friend,

Tell me frankly what you saw in that chasm: I amsure it was something strange and terrible. Whateverit be, it has left your mind in a state of doubt. In such acase two heads are better than one. Confide in me.

The engineer long endeavoured to evade my in-quiries; but as, while he spoke, he helped himself

unconsciously out of the brandy-flask to a degree towhich he was wholly unaccustomed, for he was a verytemperate man, his reserve gradually melted away. Hewho would keep himself to himself should imitatethe dumb animals, and drink water. At last he said,I will tell you all. When the cage stopped, I found

myself on a ridge of rock; and below me, the chasm,taking a slanting direction, shot down to a consider-


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able depth, the darkness of which my lamp could nothave penetrated. But through it, to my infinite sur-

prise, streamed upward a steady brilliant light. Couldit be any volcanic fire? in that case, surely I shouldhave felt the heat. Still, if on this there was doubt, itwas of the utmost importance to our common safetyto clear it up. I examined the sides of the descent, andfound that I could venture to trust myself to the ir-

regular projections or ledges, at least for some way.I left the cage and clambered down. As I drew nearand nearer to the light, the chasm became wider, andat last I saw, to my unspeakable amaze, a broad levelroad at the bottom of the abyss, illumined as far as theeye could reach by what seemed artificial gas-lampsplaced at regular intervals, as in the thoroughfare of agreat city; and I heard confusedly at a distance a humas of human voices. I know, of course, that no rivalminers are at work in this district. Whose could bethose voices? What human hands could have levelled

that road and marshalled those lamps?The superstitious belief, common to miners, thatgnomes or fiends dwell within the bowels of theearth, began to seize me. I shuddered at the thoughtof descending further and braving the inhabitants ofthis nether valley. Nor indeed could I have done so

without ropes, as from the spot I had reached to thebottom of the chasm the sides of the rock sank down


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C II.

With the morning my friends nerves were rebraced,

and he was not less excited by curiosity than myself.Perhaps more; for he evidently believed in his ownstory, and I felt considerable doubt of it: not that hewould have wilfully told an untruth, but that I thoughthe must have been under one of those hallucinationswhich seize on our fancy or our nerves in solitary, un-accustomed places, and in which we give shape to theformless and sound to the dumb.

We selected six veteran miners to watch our de-scent; and as the cage held only one at a time, the en-gineer descended first; and when he had gained the

ledge at which he had before halted, the cage re-arosefor me. I soon gained his side. We had provided our-selves with a strong coil of rope.

The light struck on my sight as it had done the daybefore on my friends. The hollow through which itcame sloped diagonally: it seemed to me a diffused

atmospheric light, not like that from fire, but soft andsilvery, as from a northern star. Quitting the cage, we


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descended, one after the other, easily enough, ow-ing to the juts in the side, till we reached the place at

which my friend had previously halted, and which wasa projection just spacious enough to allow us to standabreast. From this spot the chasm widened rapidlylike the lower end of a vast funnel, and I saw distinctlythe valley, the road, the lamps which my companionhad described. He had exaggerated nothing. I heard

the sounds he had hearda mingled indescribablehum as of voices and a dull tramp as of feet. Strainingmy eye farther down, I clearly beheld at a distance theoutline of some large building. It could not be merenatural rock, it was too symmetrical, with huge heavyEgyptian-like columns, and the whole lighted as fromwithin. I had about me a small pocket-telescope, andby the aid of this I could distinguish, near the buildingI mention, two forms which seemed human, though Icould not be sure. At least they were living, for theymoved, and both vanished within the building. We

now proceeded to attach the end of the rope we hadbrought with us to the ledge on which we stood, bythe aid of clamps and grappling-hooks, with which, aswell as with necessary tools, we were provided.

We were almost silent in our work. We toiled likemen afraid to speak to each other. One end of the

rope being thus apparently made firm to the ledge,the other, to which we fastened a fragment of the rock,


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rested on the ground below, a distance of some fiftyfeet. I was a younger and a more active man than my

companion, and having served on board ship in myboyhood, this mode of transit was more familiar to methan to him. In a whisper I claimed the precedence, sothat when I gained the ground I might serve to holdthe rope more steady for his descent. I got safely tothe ground beneath, and the engineer now began to

lower himself. But he had scarcely accomplished tenfeet of the descent, when the fastenings, which we hadfancied so secure, gave way, or rather the rock itselfproved treacherous and crumbled beneath the strain;and the unhappy man was precipitated to the bottom,falling just at my feet, and bringing down with his fallsplinters of the rock, one of which, fortunately but asmall one, struck and for the time stunned me. WhenI recovered my senses I saw my companion an inani-mate mass beside me, life utterly extinct. While I wasbending over his corpse in grief and horror, I heard

close at hand a strange sound between a snort anda hiss; and turning instinctively to the quarter fromwhich it came, I saw emerging from a dark fissure inthe rock a vast and terrible head, with open jaws anddull, ghastly, hungry eyesthe head of a monstrousreptile resembling that of the crocodile or alligator,

but infinitely larger than the largest creature of thatkind I had ever beheld in my travels. I started to my


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feet and fled down the valley at my utmost speed. Istopped at last, ashamed of my panic and my flight,

and returned to the spot on which I had left the bodyof my friend. It was gone; doubtless the monster hadalready drawn it into its den and devoured it. Therope and the grappling-hooks still lay where they hadfallen, but they afforded me no chance of return: itwas impossible to re-attach them to the rock above,

and the sides of the rock were too sheer and smoothfor human steps to clamber. I was alone in this strangeworld, amidst the bowels of the earth.


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C III.

Slowly and cautiously I went my solitary way down

the lamplit road and towards the large building Ihave described. The road itself seemed like a greatAlpine pass, skirting rocky mountains of which theone through whose chasms I had descended formeda link. Deep below to the left lay a vast valley, whichpresented to my astonished eye the unmistakable evi-dences of art and culture. There were fields coveredwith a strange vegetation, similar to none I have seenabove the earth; the colour of it not green, but ratherof a dull leaden hue or of a golden red.

There were lakes and rivulets which seemed to have

been curbed into artificial banks; some of pure water,others that shone like pools of naphtha. At my righthand, ravines and defiles opened amidst the rocks,with passes between, evidently constructed by art,and bordered by trees resembling, for the most part,gigantic ferns, with exquisite varieties of feathery foli-

age, and stems like those of the palm-tree. Others weremore like the cane-plant, but taller, bearing large clus-


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ters of flowers. Others, again, had the form of enor-mous fungi, with short thick stems supporting a wide

dome-like roof, from which either rose or droopedlong slender branches. The whole scene behind, be-fore, and beside me, far as the eye could reach, wasbrilliant with innumerable lamps. The world withouta sun was bright and warm as an Italian landscape atnoon, but the air less oppressive, the heat softer. Nor

was the scene before me void of signs of habitation. Icould distinguish at a distance, whether on the banksof lake or rivulet, or half-way upon eminences, em-bedded amidst the vegetation, buildings that mustsurely be the homes of men. I could even discover,though far off, forms that appeared to me humanmoving amidst the landscape. As I paused to gaze, Isaw to the right, gliding quickly through the air, whatappeared a small boat, impelled by sails shaped likewings. It soon passed out of sight, descending amidstthe shades of a forest. Right above me there was no

sky, but only a cavernous roof. This roof grew higherand higher at the distance of the landscapes beyond,till it became imperceptible, as an atmosphere of hazeformed itself beneath.

Continuing my walk, I started,from a bush thatresembled a great tangle of sea-weeds, interspersed

with fern-like shrubs and plants of large leafageshaped like that of the aloe or prickly pear,a curi-


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ous animal about the size and shape of a deer. But as,after bounding away a few paces, it turned round and

gazed at me inquisitively, I perceived that it was notlike any species of deer now extant above the earth,but it brought instantly to my recollection a plastercast I had seen in some museum of a variety of theelk stag, said to have existed before the Deluge. Thecreature seemed tame enough, and, after inspecting

me a moment or two, began to graze on the singularherbage around undismayed and careless.


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C IV.

I now came in full sight of the building. Yes, it had

been made by hands, and hollowed partly out ofa great rock. I should have supposed it at the firstglance to have been of the earliest form of Egyptianarchitecture. It was fronted by huge columns, taperingupward from massive plinths, and with capitals that,as I came nearer, I perceived to be more ornamentaland more fantastically graceful than Egyptian archi-tecture allows. As the Corinthian capital mimics theleaf of the acanthus, so the capitals of these columnsimitated the foliage of the vegetation neighbouringthem, some aloe-like, some fern-like. And now there

came out of this building a formhuman;was ithuman? It stood on the broad way and looked around,beheld me and approached. It came within a few yardsof me, and at the sight and presence of it an inde-scribable awe and tremor seized me, rooting my feetto the ground. It reminded me of symbolical images

of Genius or Demon that are seen on Etruscan vasesor limned on the walls of Eastern sepulchresim-


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ages that borrow the outlines of man, and are yet ofanother race. It was tall, not gigantic, but tall as the

tallest men below the height of giants.Its chief covering seemed to me to be composed of

large wings folded over its breast and reaching to itsknees; the rest of its attire was composed of an un-der tunic and leggings of some thin fibrous material.It wore on its head a kind of tiara that shone with

jewels, and carried in its right hand a slender staff ofbright metal like polished steel. But the face! it wasthat which inspired my awe and my terror. It was theface of man, but yet of a type of man distinct fromour known extant races. The nearest approach to itin outline and expression is the face of the sculpturedsphinxso regular in its calm, intellectual, mysteri-ous beauty. Its colour was peculiar, more like that ofthe red man than any other variety of our species, andyet different from ita richer and a softer hue, withlarge black eyes, deep and brilliant, and brows arched

as a semicircle. The face was beardless; but a namelesssomething in the aspect, tranquil though the expres-sion, and beauteous though the features, roused thatinstinct of danger which the sight of a tiger or serpentarouses. I felt that this manlike image was endowedwith forces inimical to man. As it drew near, a cold

shudder came over me. I fell on my knees and coveredmy face with my hands.


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tesselated blocks of precious metals, and partly cov-ered with a sort of matlike carpeting. A strain of low

music, above and around, undulated as if from invis-ible instruments, seeming to belong naturally to theplace, just as the sound of murmuring waters belongsto a rocky landscape, or the warble of birds to vernalgroves.

A figure, in a simpler garb than that of my guide,

but of similar fashion, was standing motionless nearthe threshold. My guide touched it twice with his staff,and it put itself into a rapid and gliding movement,skimming noiselessly over the floor. Gazing on it, Ithen saw that it was no living form, but a mechanicalautomaton. It might be two minutes after it vanishedthrough a doorless opening, half screened by curtainsat the other end of the hall, when through the sameopening advanced a boy of about twelve years old,with features closely resembling those of my guide,so that they seemed to me evidently son and father.

On seeing me the child uttered a cry, and lifted a stafflike that borne by my guide, as if in menace. At a wordfrom the elder he dropped it. The two then conversedfor some moments, examining me while they spoke.The child touched my garments, and stroked my facewith evident curiosity, uttering a sound like a laugh,

but with an hilarity more subdued than the mirth ofour laughter. Presently the roof of the hall opened,


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and a platform descended, seemingly constructedon the same principle as the lifts used in hotels and

warehouses for mounting from one story to another.The stranger placed himself and the child on the

platform, and motioned to me to do the same, whichI did. We ascended quickly and safely, and alighted inthe midst of a corridor with doorways on either side.

Through one of these doorways I was conducted

into a chamber fitted up with an Oriental splendour;the walls were tesselated with spars, and metals, anduncut jewels; cushions and divans abounded; aper-tures as for windows, but unglazed, were made in thechamber, opening to the floor; and as I passed alongI observed that these openings led into spacious bal-conies, and commanded views of the illumined land-scape without. In cages suspended from the ceilingthere were birds of strange form and bright plumage,which at our entrance set up a chorus of song, modu-lated into tune as is that of our piping bullfinches. A

delicious fragrance, from censers of gold elaboratelysculptured, filled the air. Several automata, like theone I had seen, stood dumb and motionless by thewalls. The stranger placed me beside him on a divan,and again spoke to me, and again I spoke, but withoutthe least advance towards understanding each other.

But now I began to feel the effects of the blow I had


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received from the splinters of the falling rock moreacutely than I had done at first.

There came over me a sense of sickly faintness, ac-companied with acute, lancinating pains in the headand neck. I sank back on the seat, and strove in vainto stifle a groan. On this the child, who had hithertoseemed to eye me with distrust or dislike, knelt by myside to support me; taking one of my hands in both his

own, he approached his lips to my forehead, breath-ing on it softly. In a few moments my pain ceased; adrowsy, happy calm crept over me; I fell asleep.

How long I remained in this state I know not, butwhen I woke I felt perfectly restored. My eyes openedupon a group of silent forms, seated around me in thegravity and quietude of Orientalsall more or lesslike the first stranger; the same mantling wings, thesame fashion of garment, the same sphinx-like faces,with the deep dark eyes and red mans colour; aboveall, the same type of racerace akin to mans, but infi-

nitely stronger of form and grander of aspect, and in-spiring the same unutterable feeling of dread. Yet eachcountenance was mild and tranquil, and even kindlyin its expression. And, strangely enough, it seemed tome that in this very calm and benignity consisted thesecret of the dread which the countenances inspired.

They seemed as void of the lines and shadows whichcare and sorrow, and passion and sin, leave upon the


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of a humanity akin to my own. He listened quietly tothe words addressed to him, first by my guide, next

by two others of the group, and lastly by the child;then turned towards myself, and addressed me, notby words, but by signs and gestures. These I fanciedthat I perfectly understood, and I was not mistaken. Icomprehended that he inquired whence I came. I ex-tended my arm and pointed towards the road which

had led me from the chasm in the rock; then an ideaseized me. I drew forth my pocket-book and sketchedon one of its blank leaves a rough design of the ledgeof the rock, the rope, myself clinging to it; then of thecavernous rock below, the head of the reptile, the life-less form of my friend. I gave this primitive kind ofhieroglyph to my interrogator, who, after inspectingit gravely, handed it to his next neighbour, and it thuspassed round the group. The being I had at first en-countered then said a few words, and the child, whoapproached and looked at my drawing, nodded as if

he comprehended its purport, and, returning to thewindow, expanded the wings attached to his form,shook them once or twice, and then launched him-self into space without. I started up in amaze and has-tened to the window. The child was already in the air,buoyed on his wings, which he did not flap to and fro

as a bird does, but which were elevated over his head,and seemed to bear him steadily aloft without effort


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of his own. His flight seemed as swift as any eagles;and I observed that it was towards the rock whence

I had descended, of which the outline loomed visiblein the brilliant atmosphere. In a very few minutes hereturned, skimming through the opening from whichhe had gone, and dropping on the floor the rope andgrappling-hooks I had left at the descent from thechasm. Some words in a low tone passed between

the beings present: one of the group touched an au-tomaton, which started forward and glided from theroom; then the last comer, who had addressed meby gestures, rose, took me by the hand, and led meinto the corridor. There the platform by which I hadmounted awaited us; we placed ourselves on it andwere lowered into the hall below. My new companion,still holding me by the hand, conducted me from thebuilding into a street (so to speak) that stretched be-yond it, with buildings on either side, separated fromeach other by gardens bright with rich-coloured veg-

etation and strange flowers. Interspersed amidst thesegardens, which were divided from each other by lowwalls, or walking slowly along the road, were manyforms similar to those I had already seen. Some of thepassers-by, on observing me, approached my guide,evidently by their tones, looks, and gestures address-

ing to him inquiries about myself. In a few momentsa crowd collected round us, examining me with great


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interest, as if I were some rare wild animal. Yet even ingratifying their curiosity they preserved a grave and

courteous demeanour; and after a few words from myguide, who seemed to me to deprecate obstruction inour road, they fell back with a stately inclination ofhead, and resumed their own way with tranquil indif-ference. Midway in this thoroughfare we stopped ata building that differed from those we had hitherto

passed, inasmuch as it formed three sides of a vastcourt, at the angles of which were lofty pyramidaltowers; in the open space between the sides was a cir-cular fountain of colossal dimensions, and throwingup a dazzling spray of what seemed to me fire. Weentered the building through an open doorway andcame into an enormous hall, in which were severalgroups of children, all apparently employed in work asat some great factory. There was a huge engine in thewall which was in full play, with wheels and cylinders,and resembling our own steam-engines, except that it

was richly ornamented with precious stones and met-als, and appeared to emit a pale phosphorescent at-mosphere of shifting light. Many of the children wereat some mysterious work on this machinery, otherswere seated before tables. I was not allowed to lingerlong enough to examine into the nature of their em-

ployment. Not one young voice was heardnot oneyoung face turned to gaze on us. They were all still


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and indifferent as may be ghosts, through the midst ofwhich pass unnoticed the forms of the living.

Quitting this hall, my guide led me through a gal-lery richly painted in compartments, with a barbaricmixture of gold in the colours, like pictures by LouisCranach. The subjects described on these walls ap-peared to my glance as intended to illustrate events inthe history of the race amidst which I was admitted. In

all there were figures, most of them like the manlikecreatures I had seen, but not all in the same fashion ofgarb, nor all with wings. There were also the effigiesof various animals and birds wholly strange to me,with backgrounds depicting landscapes or buildings.So far as my imperfect knowledge of the pictorial artwould allow me to form an opinion, these paintingsseemed very accurate in design and very rich in col-ouring, showing a perfect knowledge of perspective,but their details not arranged according to the rulesof composition acknowledged by our artistswant-

ing, as it were, a centre; so that the effect was vague,scattered, confused, bewilderingthey were like het-erogeneous fragments of a dream of art.

We now came into a room of moderate size, inwhich was assembled what I afterwards knew to bethe family of my guide, seated at a table spread as

for repast. The forms thus grouped were those of myguides wife, his daughter, and two sons. I recognised


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at once the difference between the two sexes, thoughthe two females were of taller stature and ampler pro-

portions than the males; and their countenances, ifstill more symmetrical in outline and contour, weredevoid of the softness and timidity of expressionwhich give charm to the face of woman as seen onthe earth above. The wife wore no wings, the daughterwore wings longer than those of the males.

My guide uttered a few words, on which all the per-sons seated rose, and with that peculiar mildness oflook and manner which I have before noticed, andwhich is, in truth, the common attribute of this formi-dable race, they saluted me according to their fashion,which consists in laying the right hand very gently onthe head and uttering a soft sibilant monosyllableS.Si, equivalent to Welcome.

The mistress of the house then seated me besideher, and heaped a golden platter before me from oneof the dishes.

While I ate (and though the viands were new to me,I marvelled more at the delicacy than the strangenessof their flavour), my companions conversed quietly,and, so far as I could detect, with polite avoidance ofany direct reference to myself, or any obtrusive scru-tiny of my appearance. Yet I was the first creature of

that variety of the human race to which I belong thatthey had ever beheld, and was consequently regarded


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by them as a most curious and abnormal phenom-enon. But all rudeness is unknown to this people, and

the youngest child is taught to despise any vehementemotional demonstration. When the meal was ended,my guide again took me by the hand, and, re-enter-ing the gallery, touched a metallic plate inscribed withstrange figures, and which I rightly conjectured to beof the nature of our telegraphs. A platform descended,

but this time we mounted to a much greater heightthan in the former building, and found ourselves in aroom of moderate dimensions, and which in its gen-eral character had much that might be familiar to theassociations of a visitor from the upper world. Therewere shelves on the wall containing what appeared tobe books, and indeed were so; mostly very small, likeour diamond duodecimos, shaped in the fashion ofour volumes, and bound in fine sheets of metal. Therewere several curious-looking pieces of mechanismscattered about, apparently models, such as might be

seen in the study of any professional mechanician.Four automata (mechanical contrivances which, withthese people, answer the ordinary purposes of domes-tic service) stood phantom-like at each angle in thewall. In a recess was a low couch, or bed with pillows. Awindow, with curtains of some fibrous material drawn

aside, opened upon a large balcony. My host steppedout into the balcony; I followed him. We were on the


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uppermost story of one of the angular pyramids; theview beyond was of a wild and solemn beauty impos-

sible to describe,the vast ranges of precipitous rockwhich formed the distant background, the interme-diate valleys of mystic many-coloured herbage, theflash of waters, many of them like streams of roseateflame, the serene lustre diffused over all by myriads oflamps, combined to form a whole of which no words

of mine can convey adequate description; so splendidwas it, yet so sombre; so lovely, yet so awful.

But my attention was soon diverted from thesenether landscapes. Suddenly there arose, as from thestreets below, a burst of joyous music; then a wingedform soared into the space; another, as in chase ofthe first, another and another; others after others,till the crowd grew thick and the number countless.But how describe the fantastic grace of these formsin their undulating movements! They appeared en-gaged in some sport or amusement; now forming into

opposite squadrons; now scattering; now each groupthreading the other, soaring, descending, interweav-ing, severing; all in measured time to the music below,as if in the dance of the fabled Peri.

I turned my gaze on my host in a feverish wonder.I ventured to place my hand on the large wings that

lay folded on his breast, and in doing so a slight shockas of electricity passed through me. I recoiled in fear;


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my host smiled, and, as if courteously to gratify mycuriosity, slowly expanded his pinions. I observed that

his garment beneath then became dilated as a blad-der that fills with air. The arms seemed to slide intothe wings, and in another moment he had launchedhimself into the luminous atmosphere, and hoveredthere, still, and with outspread wings, as an eagle thatbasks in the sun. Then, rapidly as an eagle swoops, he

rushed downwards into the midst of one of the groups,skimming through the midst, and as suddenly againsoaring aloft. Thereon, three forms, in one of whichI thought to recognise my hosts daughter, detachedthemselves from the rest, and followed him as a birdsportively follows a bird. My eyes, dazzled with thelights and bewildered by the throngs, ceased to dis-tinguish the gyrations and evolutions of these wingedplaymates, till presently my host re-emerged from thecrowd and alighted at my side.

The strangeness of all I had seen began now to

operate fast on my senses; my mind itself began towander. Though not inclined to be superstitious, norhitherto believing that man could be brought intobodily communication with demons, I felt the terrorand the wild excitement with which, in the Gothicages, a traveller might have persuaded himself that

he witnessed a sabbat of fiends and witches. I havea vague recollection of having attempted with vehe-


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C VI.

I remained in this unconscious state, as I afterwards

learned, for many days, even for some weeks, accord-ing to our computation of time. When I recovered Iwas in a strange room, my host and all his family weregathered round me, and to my utter amaze my hostsdaughter accosted me in my own language with but aslightly foreign accent.

How do you feel? she asked.It was some moments before I could overcome

my surprise enough to falter out, You know my lan-guage? How? Who and what are you?

My host smiled and motioned to one of his sons,

who then took from a table a number of thin metal-lic sheets on which were traced drawings of variousfiguresa house, a tree, a bird, a man, &c.

In these designs I recognised my own style of draw-ing. Under each figure was written the name of it inmy language, and in my writing; and in another hand-

writing a word strange to me beneath it.Said the host, Thus we began; and my daughter


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Zee, who belongs to the College of Sages, has beenyour instructress and ours too.

Zee then placed before me other metallic sheets,on which, in my writing, words first, and then sen-tences, were inscribed, and under each word and eachsentence strange characters in another hand. Rallyingmy senses, I comprehended that thus a rude diction-ary had been effected. Had it been done while I was

dreaming? That is enough now, said Zee, in a toneof command. Repose and take food.


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self at an opera in listening to the voices in my avi-ary. There were duets and trios, and quartettes and

choruses, all arranged as in one piece of music. Did Iwant to silence the birds? I had but to draw a curtainover the aviary, and their song hushed as they foundthemselves left in the dark. Another opening formeda window, not glazed, but on touching a spring, ashutter ascended from the floor, formed of some sub-

stance less transparent than glass, but still sufficientlypellucid to allow a softened view of the scene with-out. To this window was attached a balcony, or ratherhanging-garden, wherein grew many graceful plantsand brilliant flowers. The apartment and its appurte-nances had thus a character, if strange in detail, stillfamiliar, as a whole, to modern notions of luxury, andwould have excited admiration if found attached tothe apartments of an English duchess or a fashionableFrench author. Before I arrived this was Zees cham-ber; she had hospitably assigned it to me.

Some hours after the waking up which is describedin my last chapter, I was lying alone on my couch try-ing to fix my thoughts on conjecture as to the natureand genus of the people amongst whom I was thrown,when my host and his daughter Zee entered the room.My host, still speaking my native language, inquired,

with much politeness, whether it would be agreeableto me to converse, or if I preferred solitude. I replied,


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that I should feel much honoured and obliged by theopportunity offered me to express my gratitude for

the hospitality and civilities I had received in a coun-try to which I was a stranger, and to learn enough ofits customs and manners not to offend through igno-rance.

As I spoke, I had of course risen from my couch;but Zee, much to my confusion, curtly ordered me to

lie down again, and there was something in her voiceand eye, gentle as both were, that compelled my obe-dience. She then seated herself unconcernedly at thefoot of my bed, while her father took his place on adivan a few feet distant.

But what part of the world do you come from,asked my host, that we should appear so strange toyou, and you to us? I have seen individual specimensof nearly all the races differing from our own, exceptthe primeval savages who dwell in the most desolateand remote recesses of uncultivated nature, unac-

quainted with other light than that they obtain fromvolcanic fires, and contented to grope their way in thedark, as do many creeping, crawling, and even flyingthings. But certainly you cannot be a member of thosebarbarous tribes, nor, on the other hand, do you seemto belong to any civilised people.

I was somewhat nettled at this last observation, andreplied that I had the honour to belong to one of the


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most civilised nations of the earth; and that, so faras light was concerned, while I admired the ingenu-

ity and disregard of expense with which my host andhis fellow-citizens had contrived to illumine the re-gions unpenetrated by the rays of the sun, yet I couldnot conceive how any who had once beheld the orbsof heaven could compare to their lustre the artificiallights invented by the necessities of man. But my host

said he had seen specimens of most of the races dif-fering from his own, save the wretched barbarians hehad mentioned. Now, was it possible that he had neverbeen on the surface of the earth, or could he only bereferring to communities buried within its entrails?

My host was for some moments silent; his counte-nance showed a degree of surprise which the peopleof that race very rarely manifest under any circum-stances, howsoever extraordinary. But Zee was moreintelligent, and exclaimed, So you see, my father, thatthere is truth in the old tradition; there always is truth

in every tradition commonly believed in all times andby all tribes.Zee, said my host mildly, you belong to the Col-

lege of Sages, and ought to be wiser than I am; but, aschief of the Light-preserving Council, it is my duty totake nothing for granted till it is proved to the evidence

of my own senses. Then, turning to me, he asked meseveral questions about the surface of the earth and the


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heavenly bodies; upon which, though I answered himto the best of my knowledge, my answers seemed not

to satisfy nor convince him. He shook his head quietly,and, changing the subject rather abruptly, asked how Ihad come down from what he was pleased to call oneworld to the other. I answered, that under the surfaceof the earth there were mines containing minerals, ormetals, essential to our wants and our progress in all

arts and industries; and I then briefly explained themanner in which, while exploring one of these mines,I and my ill-fated friend had obtained a glimpse of theregions into which we had descended, and how thedescent had cost him his life; appealing to the ropeand grappling-hooks that the child had brought to thehouse in which I had been at first received, as a wit-ness of the truthfulness of my story.

My host then proceeded to question me as to thehabits and modes of life among the races on the up-per earth, more especially among those considered

to be the most advanced in that civilisation which hewas pleased to define the art of diffusing throughouta community the tranquil happiness which belongsto a virtuous and well-ordered household. Naturallydesiring to represent in the most favourable coloursthe world from which I came, I touched but slightly,

though indulgently, on the antiquated and decayinginstitutions of Europe, in order to expatiate on the


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present grandeur and prospective pre-eminence ofthat glorious American Republic, in which Europe

enviously seeks its model and tremblingly foresees itsdoom. Selecting for an example of the social life of theUnited States that city in which progress advances atthe fastest rate, I indulged in an animated descriptionof the moral habits of New York. Mortified to see, bythe faces of my listeners, that I did not make the fa-

vourable impression I had anticipated, I elevated mytheme; dwelling on the excellence of democratic in-stitutions, their promotion of tranquil happiness bythe government of party, and the mode in which theydiffused such happiness throughout the communityby preferring for the exercise of power and the ac-quisition of honours, the lowliest citizens in point ofproperty, education, and character. Fortunately recol-lecting the peroration of a speech, on the purifyinginfluences of American democracy and their des-tined spread over the world, made by a certain elo-

quent senator (for whose vote in the Senate a RailwayCompany, to which my two brothers belonged, hadjust paid 20,000 dollars), I wound up by repeating itsglowing predictions of the magnificent future thatsmiled upon mankindwhen the flag of freedomshould float over an entire continent, and two hun-

dred millions of intelligent citizens, accustomed frominfancy to the daily use of revolvers, should apply to


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a cowering universe the doctrine of the Patriot Mon-roe.

When I had concluded, my host gently shook hishead, and fell into a musing study, making a sign to meand his daughter to remain silent while he reflected.And after a time he said, in a very earnest and sol-emn tone, If you think, as you say, that you, thougha stranger, have received kindness at the hands of me

and mine, I adjure you to reveal nothing to any otherof our people respecting the world from which youcame, unless, on consideration, I give you permissionto do so. Do you consent to this request?

Of course I pledge my word to it, said I, some-what amazed; and I extended my right hand to grasphis. But he placed my hand gently on his forehead andhis own right hand on my breast, which is the cus-tom amongst this race in all matters of promise or

verbal obligations. Then turning to his daughter, hesaid, And you, Zee, will not repeat to any one what

the stranger has said, or may say, to me or to you, ofa world other than our own. Zee rose and kissed herfather on the temples, saying with a smile, A Gystongue is wanton, but love can fetter it fast. And if, myfather, you fear lest a chance word from me or your-self could expose our community to danger, by a de-

sire to explore a world beyond us, will not a wave ofthe vril,properly impelled, wash even the memory of


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what we have heard the stranger say out of the tabletsof the brain?

What is vril? I asked.Therewith Zee began to enter into an explanation

of which I understood very little, for there is no wordin any language I know which is an exact synonym for

vril. I should call it electricity, except that it compre-hends in its manifold branches other forces of nature,

to which, in our scientific nomenclature, differingnames are assigned, such as magnetism, galvanism,&c. These people consider that in vril they have ar-rived at the unity in natural energic agencies, whichhas been conjectured by many philosophers aboveground, and which Faraday thus intimates under themore cautious term of correlation:

I have long held an opinion, says that illustriousexperimentalist, almost amounting to a conviction,in common, I believe, with many other lovers of natu-ral knowledge, that the various forms under which

the forces of matter are made manifest have one com-mon origin; or, in other words, are so directly relatedand mutually dependent, that they are convertible, asit were, into one another, and possess equivalents ofpower in their action.

These subterranean philosophers assert that, by one

operation of vril, which Faraday would perhaps callatmospheric magnetism, they can influence the vari-


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ations of temperaturein plain words, the weather;that by other operations, akin to those ascribed to

mesmerism, electro-biology, odic force, &c., but ap-plied scientifically through vril conductors, they canexercise influence over minds, and bodies animal and

vegetable, to an extent not surpassed in the romancesof our mystics. To all such agencies they give the com-mon name of vril. Zee asked me if, in my world, it was

not known that all the faculties of the mind could bequickened to a degree unknown in the waking state,by trance or vision, in which the thoughts of onebrain could be transmitted to another, and knowledgebe thus rapidly interchanged. I replied, that there wereamongst us stories told of such trance or vision, andthat I had heard much and seen something of themode in which they were artificially effected, as inmesmeric clairvoyance; but that these practices hadfallen much into disuse or contempt, partly becauseof the gross impostures to which they had been made

subservient, and partly because, even where the ef-fects upon certain abnormal constitutions were genu-inely produced, the effects, when fairly examined andanalysed, were very unsatisfactorynot to be reliedupon for any systematic truthfulness or any practicalpurpose, and rendered very mischievous to credulous

persons by the superstitions they tended to produce.Zee received my answers with much benignant at-


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tention, and said that similar instances of abuse andcredulity had been familiar to their own scientific ex-

perience in the infancy of their knowledge, and whilethe properties of vril were misapprehended, but thatshe reserved further discussion on this subject till Iwas more fitted to enter into it. She contented herselfwith adding, that it was through the agency of vril,while I had been placed in the state of trance, that

I had been made acquainted with the rudiments oftheir language; and that she and her father, who, aloneof the family, took the pains to watch the experiment,had acquired a greater proportionate knowledge ofmy language than I of their own; partly because mylanguage was much simpler than theirs, comprisingfar less of complex ideas; and partly because theirorganisation was, by hereditary culture, much moreductile and more readily capable of acquiring knowl-edge than mine. At this I secretly demurred; and hav-ing had, in the course of a practical life, to sharpen

my wits, whether at home or in travel, I could not al-low that my cerebral organisation could possibly beduller than that of people who had lived all their livesby lamplight. However, while I was thus thinking, Zeequietly pointed her forefinger at my forehead and sentme to sleep.


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C VIII.

When I once more awoke I saw by my bedside the

child who had brought the rope and grappling-hooksto the house in which I had been first received, andwhich, as I afterwards learned, was the residence ofthe chief magistrate of the tribe. The child, whosename was Ta (pronounced Tar-), was the magis-trates eldest son. I found that during my last sleep ortrance I had made still greater advance in the languageof the country, and could converse with comparativeease and fluency.

This child was singularly handsome, even for thebeautiful race to which he belonged, with a counte-

nance very manly in aspect for his years, and with amore vivacious and energetic expression than I hadhitherto seen in the serene and passionless faces ofthe men. He brought me the tablet on which I haddrawn the mode of my descent, and had also sketchedthe head of the horrible reptile that had scared me

from my friends corpse. Pointing to that part of thedrawing, Ta put to me a few questions respecting the


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size and form of the monster, and the cave or chasmfrom which it had emerged. His interest in my answers

seemed so grave as to divert him for a while from anycuriosity as to myself or my antecedents. But to mygreat embarrassment, seeing how I was pledged to myhost, he was just beginning to ask me where I camefrom, when Zee fortunately entered, and, overhearinghim, said, Ta, give to our guest any information he

may desire, but ask none from him in return. To ques-tion him who he is, whence he comes, or wherefore heis here, would be a breach of the law which my fatherhas laid down for this house.

So be it, said Ta, pressing his hand to his heart;and from that moment, till the one in which I sawhim last, this child, with whom I became very inti-mate, never once put to me any of the questions thusinterdicted.


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C IX.

It was not for some time, and until, by repeated

trances, if they are so to be called, my mind becamebetter prepared to interchange ideas with my enter-tainers, and more fully to comprehend differences ofmanners and customs, at first too strange to my expe-rience to be seized by my reason, that I was enabled togather the following details respecting the origin andhistory of this subterranean population, as portion ofone great family race called the Ana.

According to the earliest traditions, the remote pro-genitors of the race had once tenanted a world abovethe surface of that in which their descendants dwelt.

Myths of that world were still preserved in their ar-chives, and in those myths were legends of a vaulteddome in which the lamps were lighted by no humanhand. But such legends were considered by most com-mentators as allegorical fables. According to thesetraditions the earth itself, at the date to which the tra-

ditions ascend, was not indeed in its infancy, but inthe throes and travail of transition from one form of


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development to another, and subject to many violentrevolutions of nature. By one of such revolutions, that

portion of the upper world inhabited by the ancestorsof this race had been subjected to inundations, notrapid, but gradual and uncontrollable, in which all,save a scanty remnant, were submerged and perished.Whether this be a record of our historical and sacredDeluge, or of some earlier one contended for by geol-

ogists, I do not pretend to conjecture; though, accord-ing to the chronology of this people as compared withthat of Newton, it must have been many thousands ofyears before the time of Noah. On the other hand, theaccount of these writers does not harmonise with theopinions most in vogue among geological authorities,inasmuch as it places the existence of a human raceupon earth at dates long anterior to that assigned tothe terrestrial formation adapted to the introductionof mammalia. A band of the ill-fated race, thus in-

vaded by the Flood, had, during the march of the wa-

ters, taken refuge in caverns amidst the loftier rocks,and, wandering through these hollows, they lost sightof the upper world for ever. Indeed, the whole face ofthe earth had been changed by this great revulsion;land had been turned into seasea into land. In thebowels of the inner earth even now, I was informed as

a positive fact, might be discovered the remains of hu-man habitationhabitation not in huts and caverns,


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but in vast cities whose ruins attest the civilisation ofraces which flourished before the age of Noah, and

are not to be classified with those genera to whichphilosophy ascribes the use of flint and the ignoranceof iron.

The fugitives had carried with them the knowledgeof the arts they had practised above groundarts ofculture and civilisation. Their earliest want must have

been that of supplying below the earth the light theyhad lost above it; and at no time, even in the tradi-tional period, do the races, of which the one I nowsojourned with formed a tribe, seem to have been un-acquainted with the art of extracting light from gases,or manganese, or petroleum. They had been accus-tomed in their former state to contend with the rudeforces of nature; and indeed the lengthened battlethey had fought with their conqueror Ocean, whichhad taken centuries in its spread, had quickened theirskill in curbing waters into dikes and channels. To this

skill they owed their preservation in their new abode.For many generations, said my host, with a sort ofcontempt and horror, these primitive forefathers aresaid to have degraded their rank and shortened theirlives by eating the flesh of animals, many varieties ofwhich had, like themselves, escaped the Deluge, and

sought shelter in the hollows of the earth; other ani-


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mals, supposed to be unknown to the upper world,those hollows themselves produced.

When what we should term the historical ageemerged from the twilight of tradition, the Ana werealready established in different communities, and hadattained to a degree of civilisation very analogousto that which the more advanced nations above theearth now enjoy. They were familiar with most of our

mechanical inventions, including the application ofsteam as well as gas. The communities were in fiercecompetition with each other. They had their rich andtheir poor; they had orators and conquerors; theymade war either for a domain or an idea. Though the

various states acknowledged various forms of govern-ment, free institutions were beginning to preponder-ate; popular assemblies increased in power; republicssoon became general; the democracy to which themost enlightened European politicians look forwardas the extreme goal of political advancement, and

which still prevailed among other subterranean races,whom they despised as barbarians, the loftier fam-ily of Ana, to which belonged the tribe I was visit-ing, looked back to as one of the crude and ignorantexperiments which belong to the infancy of politicalscience. It was the age of envy and hate, of fierce pas-

sions, of constant social changes more or less violent,of strife between classes, of war between state and


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state. This phase of society lasted, however, for someages, and was finally brought to a close, at least among

the nobler and more intellectual populations, by thegradual discovery of the latent powers stored in theall-permeating fluid which they denominate Vril.

According to the account I received from Zee, who,as an erudite professor in the College of Sages, hadstudied such matters more diligently than any other

member of my hosts family, this fluid is capable ofbeing raised and disciplined into the mightiest agencyover all forms of matter, animate or inanimate. It candestroy like the flash of lightning; yet, differentlyapplied, it can replenish or invigorate life, heal, andpreserve, and on it they chiefly rely for the cure ofdisease, or rather for enabling the physical organisa-tion to re-establish the due equilibrium of its naturalpowers, and thereby to cure itself. By this agency theyrend way through the most solid substances, and open

valleys for culture through the rocks of their subterra-

nean wilderness. From it they extract the light whichsupplies their lamps, finding it steadier, softer, andhealthier than the other inflammable materials theyhad formerly used.

But the effects of the alleged discovery of themeans to direct the more terrible force of vril were

chiefly remarkable in their influence upon social pol-ity. As these effects became familiarly known and skil-


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fully administered, war between the Vril-discoverersceased, for they brought the art of destruction to such

perfection as to annul all superiority in numbers, dis-cipline, or military skill. The fire lodged in the hollowof a rod directed by the hand of a child could shat-ter the strongest fortress, or cleave its burning wayfrom the van to the rear of an embattled host. If armymet army, and both had command of this agency, it

could be but to the annihilation of each. The age ofwar was therefore gone, but with the cessation of warother effects bearing upon the social state soon be-came apparent. Man was so completely at the mercyof man, each whom he encountered being able, if sowilling, to slay him on the instant, that all notions ofgovernment by force gradually vanished from politi-cal systems and forms of law. It is only by force that

vast communities, dispersed through great distancesof space, can be kept together; but now there was nolonger either the necessity of self-preservation or the

pride of aggrandisement to make one state desire topreponderate in population over another.The Vril-discoverers thus, in the course of a few

generations, peacefully split into communities ofmoderate size. The tribe amongst which I had fallenwas limited to 12,000 families. Each tribe occupied a

territory sufficient for all its wants, and at stated pe-riods the surplus population departed to seek a realm


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of its own. There appeared no necessity for any arbi-trary selection of these emigrants; there was always a

sufficient number who volunteered to depart.These subdivided states, petty if we regard either

territory or population,all appertained to one vastgeneral family. They spoke the same language, thoughthe dialects might slightly differ. They intermarried;they maintained the same general laws and customs;

and so important a bond between these several com-munities was the knowledge of vril and the practiceof its agencies, that the word A-Vril was synonymouswith civilisation; and Vril-ya, signifying The Civi-lised Nations, was the common name by which thecommunities employing the uses of vril distinguishedthemselves from such of the Ana as were yet in a stateof barbarism.

The government of the tribe of Vril-ya I am treatingof was apparently very complicated, really very simple.It was based upon a principle recognised in theory,

though little carried out in practice, above groundviz., that the object of all systems of philosophicalthought tends to the attainment of unity, or the ascentthrough all intervening labyrinths to the simplicity ofa single first cause or principle. Thus in politics, evenrepublican writers have agreed that a benevolent au-

tocracy would insure the best administration, if therewere any guarantees for its continuance, or against its


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gradual abuse of the powers accorded to it. This sin-gular community elected therefore a single supreme

magistrate styled Tur; he held his office nominally forlife, but he could seldom be induced to retain it afterthe first approach of old age. There was indeed in thissociety nothing to induce any of its members to covetthe cares of office. No honours, no insignia of higherrank, were assigned to it. The supreme magistrate was

not distinguished from the rest by superior habitationor revenue. On the other hand, the duties awarded tohim were marvellously light and easy, requiring nopreponderant degree of energy or intelligence. Therebeing no apprehensions of war, there were no armiesto maintain; being no government of force, there wasno police to appoint and direct. What we call crimewas utterly unknown to the Vril-ya; and there wereno courts of criminal justice. The rare instances ofcivil disputes were referred for arbitration to friendschosen by either party, or decided by the Council of

Sages, which will be described later. There were noprofessional lawyers; and indeed their laws were butamicable conventions, for there was no power to en-force laws against an offender who carried in his staffthe power to destroy his judges. There were customsand regulations to compliance with which, for several

ages, the people had tacitly habituated themselves; orif in any instance an individual felt such compliance


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hard, he quitted the community and went elsewhere.There was, in fact, quietly established amid this state,

much the same compact that is found in our privatefamilies, in which we virtually say to any independentgrown-up member of the family whom we receive andentertain, Stay or go, according as our habits and reg-ulations suit or displease you. But though there wereno laws such as we call laws, no race above ground is

so law-observing. Obedience to the rule adopted bythe community has become as much an instinct asif it were implanted by nature. Even in every house-hold the head of it makes a regulation for its guid-ance, which is never resisted nor even cavilled at bythose who belong to the family. They have a proverb,the pithiness of which is much lost in this paraphrase,No happiness without order, no order without au-thority, no authority without unity. The mildness ofall government among them, civil or domestic, maybe signalised by their idiomatic expressions for such

terms as illegal or forbiddenviz., It is requestednot to do so-and-so. Poverty among the Ana is as un-known as crime; not that property is held in common,or that all are equals in the extent of their possessionsor the size and luxury of their habitations: but therebeing no difference of rank or position between the

grades of wealth or the choice of occupations, eachpursues his own inclinations without creating envy


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other department, which might be called the foreign,communicated with the neighbouring kindred states,

principally for the purpose of ascertaining all new in-ventions; and to a third department, all such inven-tions and improvements in machinery were commit-ted for trial. Connected with this department was theCollege of Sagesa college especially favoured bysuch of the Ana as were widowed and childless, and

by the young unmarried females, amongst whom Zeewas the most active, and, if what we call renown ordistinction was a thing acknowledged by this people(which I shall later show it is not), among the mostrenowned or distinguished. It is by the female Pro-fessors of this College that those studies which aredeemed of least use in practical lifeas purely specu-lative philosophy, the history of remote periods, andsuch sciences as entomology, conchology, &c.arethe more diligently cultivated. Zee, whose mind, activeas Aristotles, equally embraced the largest domains

and the minutest details of thought, had written twovolumes on the parasite insect that dwells amid thehairs of a tigers* paw, which work was considered the

* The animal here referred to has many points of difference

from the tiger of the upper world. It is larger, and with a broader

paw, and still more receding frontal. It haunts the sides of lakes

and pools, and feeds principally on fishes, though it does notobject to any terrestrial animal of inferior strength that comes


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best authority on that interesting subject. But the re-searches of the sages are not confined to such subtle

or elegant studies. They comprise various others moreimportant, and especially the properties of vril, to theperception of which their finer nervous organisationrenders the female Professors eminently keen. It is outof this college that the Tur, or chief magistrate, selectsCouncillors, limited to three, in the rare instances in

which novelty of event or circumstance perplexes hisown judgment.

There are a few other departments of minor con-sequence, but all are carried on so noiselessly andquietly that the evidence of a government seems to

vanish altogether, and social order to be as regularand unobtrusive as if it were a law of nature. Machin-ery is employed to an inconceivable extent in all theoperations of labour within and without doors, andit is the unceasing object of the department chargedwith its administration to extend its efficiency. There

is no class of labourers or servants, but all who arerequired to assist or control the machinery are foundin the children, from the time they leave the care of

in its way. It is becoming very scarce even in the wild districts,

where it is devoured by gigantic reptiles. I apprehend that it

clearly belongs to the tiger species, since the parasite animal-

cule found in its paw, like that found in the Asiatic tigers, is aminiature image of itself.


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their mothers to the marriageable age, which theyplace at sixteen for the Gy-ei (the females), twenty for

the Ana (the males). These children are formed intobands and sections under their own chiefs, each fol-lowing the pursuits in which he is most pleased, or forwhich he feels himself most fitted. Some take to hand-icrafts, some to agriculture, some to household work,and some to the only services of danger to which the

population is exposed; for the sole perils that threatenthis tribe are, first, from those occasional convulsionswithin the earth, to foresee and guard against whichtasks their utmost ingenuityirruptions of fire andwater, the storms of subterranean winds and escap-ing gases. At the borders of the domain, and at allplaces where such peril might be apprehended, vigi-lant inspectors are stationed with telegraphic com-munication to the hall in which chosen sages take itby turns to hold perpetual sittings. These inspectorsare always selected from the elder boys approaching

the age of puberty, and on the principle that at thatage observation is more acute and the physical forcesmore alert than at any other. The second service ofdanger, less grave, is in the destruction of all creatureshostile to the life, or the culture, or even the comfort,of the Ana. Of these the most formidable are the vast

reptiles, of some of which antediluvian relics are pre-served in our museums, and certain gigantic winged


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creatures, half bird, half reptile. These, together withlesser wild animals, corresponding to our tigers or

venomous serpents, it is left to the younger childrento hunt and destroy; because, according to the Ana,here ruthlessness is wanted, and the younger a childthe more ruthlessly he will destroy. There is anotherclass of animals in the destruction of which discrimi-nation is to be used, and against which children of

intermediate age are appointedanimals that do notthreaten the life of man, but ravage the produce ofhis labour, varieties of the elk and deer species, and asmaller creature much akin to our rabbit, though infi-nitely more destructive to crops, and much more cun-ning in its mode of depredation. It is the first object ofthese appointed infants, to tame the more intelligentof such animals into respect for enclosures signalisedby conspicuous landmarks, as dogs are taught to re-spect a larder, or even to guard the masters property.It is only where such creatures are found untamable

to this extent that they are destroyed. Life is nevertaken away for food or for sport, and never sparedwhere untamably inimical to the Ana. Concomitantlywith these bodily services and tasks, the mental edu-cation of the children goes on till boyhood ceases. Itis the general custom, then, to pass through a course

of instruction at the College of Sages, in which, be-sides more general studies, the pupil receives special


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lessons in such vocation or direction of intellect as hehimself selects. Some, however, prefer to pass this pe-

riod of probation in travel, or to emigrate, or to settledown at once into rural or commercial pursuits. Noforce is put upon individual inclination.


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C X.

The word Ana (pronounced broadly Arna) corre-

sponds with our plural men ; An (pronounced Arn),the singular, with man. The word for woman is Gy(pronounced hard, as in Guy); it forms itself into Gy-ei for the plural, but the G becomes soft in the plural,like Jy-ei. They have a proverb to the effect that thisdifference in pronunciation is symbolical, for that thefemale sex is soft collectively, but hard to deal with inthe individual. The Gy-ei are in the fullest enjoymentof all the rights of equality with males, for which cer-tain philosophers above ground contend.

In childhood they perform the offices of work and

labour impartially with the boys; and, indeed, in theearlier age appropriated to the destruction of animalsirreclaimably hostile, the girls are frequently pre-ferred, as being by constitution more ruthless underthe influence of fear or hate. In the interval betweeninfancy and the marriageable age familiar intercourse

between the sexes is suspended. At the marriageableage it is renewed, never with worse consequences


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notwithstanding their boastful superiority in physicalstrength and intellectual abilities, being much curbed

into gentle manners by the dread of separation or ofa second wife, and the Ana being very much the crea-tures of custom, and not, except under great aggrava-tion, liking to exchange for hazardous novelties facesand manners to which they are reconciled by habit.But there is one privilege the Gy-ei carefully retain,

and the desire for which perhaps forms the secretmotive of most lady asserters of woman rights aboveground. They claim the privilege, here usurped bymen, of proclaiming their love and urging their suit;in other words, of being the wooing party rather thanthe wooed. Such a phenomenon as an old maid doesnot exist among the Gy-ei. Indeed it is very seldomthat a Gy does not secure any An upon whom she setsher heart, if his affections be not strongly engaged else-where. However coy, reluctant, and prudish, the maleshe courts may prove at first, yet her perseverance, her

ardour, her persuasive powers, her command over themystic agencies of vril, are pretty sure to run down hisneck into what we call the fatal noose. Their argu-ment for the reversal of that relationship of the sexeswhich the blind tyranny of man has established on thesurface of the earth, appears cogent, and is advanced

with a frankness which might well be commendedto impartial consideration. They say, that of the two


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the female is by nature of a more loving dispositionthan the malethat love occupies a larger space in

her thoughts, and is more essential to her happiness,and that therefore she ought to be the wooing party;that otherwise the male is a shy and dubitant crea-turethat he has often a selfish predilection for thesingle statethat he often pretends to misunderstandtender glances and delicate hintsthat, in short, he

must be resolutely pursued and captured. They add,moreover, that unless the Gy can secure the An of herchoice, and one whom she would not select out of thewhole world becomes her mate, she is not only lesshappy than she otherwise would be, but she is not sogood a being, that her qualities of heart are not suf-ficiently developed; whereas the An is a creature thatless lastingly concentrates his affections on one ob-

ject; that if he cannot get the Gy whom he prefers heeasily reconciles himself to another Gy; and, finally,that at the worst, if he is loved and taken care of, it is

less necessary to the welfare of his existence that heshould love as well as be loved; he grows contentedwith his creature comforts, and the many occupationsof thought which he creates for himself.

Whatever may be said as to this reasoning, the sys-tem works well for the male; for being thus sure that

he is truly and ardently loved, and that the more coyand reluctant he shows himself, the more the determi-


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nation to secure him increases, he generally contrivesto make his consent dependent on such conditions as

he thinks the best calculated to insure, if not a bliss-ful, at least a peaceful life. Each individual An has hisown hobbies, his own ways, his own predilections,and, whatever they may be, he demands a promise offull and unrestrained concession to them. This, in thepursuit of her object, the Gy readily promises; and as

the characteristic of this extraordinary people is animplicit veneration for truth, and her word once givenis never broken even by the giddiest Gy, the condi-tions stipulated for are religiously observed. In fact,notwithstanding all their abstract rights and powers,the Gy-ei are the most amiable, conciliatory, and sub-missive wives I have ever seen even in the happiesthouseholds above ground. It is an aphorism amongthem, that where a Gy loves it is her pleasure toobey. It will be observed that in the relationship ofthe sexes I have spoken only of marriage, for such is

the moral perfection to which this community has at-tained, that any illicit connection is as little possibleamongst them as it would be to a couple of linnetsduring the time they agreed to live in pairs.


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C XI.

Nothing had more perplexed me in seeking to rec-

oncile my sense to the existence of regions extend-ing below the surface of the earth, and habitable bybeings, if dissimilar from, still, in all material pointsof organism, akin to those in the upper world, thanthe contradiction thus presented to the doctrine inwhich, I believe, most geologists and philosophersconcurviz., that though with us the sun is the greatsource of heat, yet the deeper we go beneath the crustof the earth, the greater is the increasing heat, being,it is said, found in the ratio of a degree for every foot,commencing from fifty feet below the surface. But

though the domains of the tribe I speak of were, onthe higher ground, so comparatively near to the sur-face, that I could account for a temperature, therein,suitable to organic life, yet even the ravines and val-leys of that realm were much less hot than philoso-phers would deem possible at such a depthcer-

tainly not warmer than the south of France, or atleast of Italy. And according to all the accounts I re-


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ceived, vast tracts immeasurably deeper beneath thesurface, and in which one might have thought only

salamanders could exist, were inhabited by innumer-able races organised like ourselves. I cannot pretendin any way to account for a fact which is so at vari-ance with the recognised laws of science, nor couldZee much help me towards a solution of it. She didbut conjecture that sufficient allowance had not been

made by our philosophers for the extreme porousnessof the interior earththe vastness of its cavities andirregularities, which served to create free currents ofair and frequent windsand for the various modes inwhich heat is evaporated and thrown off. She allowed,however, that there was a depth at which the heat wasdeemed to be intolerable to such organised life as wasknown to the experience of the Vril-ya, though theirphilosophers believed that even in such places lifeof some kind, life sentient, life intellectual, would befound abundant and thriving, could the philosophers

penetrate to it. Wherever the All-Good builds, saidshe, there, be sure, He places inhabitants. He lovesnot empty dwellings. She added, however, that manychanges in temperature and climate had been effectedby the skill of the Vril-ya, and that the agency of vrilhad been successfully employed in such changes. She

described a subtle and life-giving medium called Lai,which I suspect to be identical with the ethereal oxy-


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gen of Dr. Lewins, wherein work all the correlativeforces united under the name of vril; and contended

that wherever this medium could be expanded, as itwere, sufficiently for the various agencies of vril tohave ample play, a temperature congenial to the high-est form of life could be secured. She said also, thatit was the belief of their naturalists that flowers and

vegetation had been produced originally (whether

developed from seeds borne from the surface of theearth in the earlier convulsions of nature, or importedby the tribes that first sought refuge in cavernous hol-lows) through the operations of the light constantlybrought to bear on them, and the gradual improve-ment in culture. She said also, that since the vril lighthad superseded all other light-giving bodies, the col-ours of flower and foliage had become more brilliant,and vegetation had acquired larger growth.

Leaving these matters to the consideration of thosebetter competent to deal with them, I must now de-

vote a few pages to the very interesting questions con-nected with the language of the Vril-ya.


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C XII.

The language of the Vril-ya is peculiarly interesting,because it seems to me to exhibit with great clearness

the traces of the three main transitions through whichlanguage passes in attaining to perfection of form.

One of the most illustrious of recent philologists,Max Mller, in arguing for the analogy between thestrata of language and the strata of the earth, laysdown this absolute dogma: No language can, byany possibility, be inflectional without having passedthrough the agglutinative and isolating stratum. Nolanguage can be agglutinative without clinging withits roots to the underlying stratum of isolation.Onthe Stratification of Language, p. 20.

Taking then the Chinese language as the best ex-isting type of the original isolating stratum, as thefaithful photograph of man in his leading-strings try-ing the muscles of his mind, groping his way, and sodelighted with his first successful grasps that he re-peats them again and again, *we have, in the lan-

* Max Mller, Stratification of Language, p. 13.


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guage of the Vril-ya, still clinging with its roots tothe underlying stratum, the evidences of the original

isolation. It abounds in monosyllables, which are thefoundations of the language. The transition into theagglutinative form marks an epoch that must havegradually extended through ages, the written litera-ture of which has only survived in a few fragmentsof symbolical mythology and certain pithy sentences

which have passed into popular proverbs. With theextant literature of the Vril-ya the inflectional stra-tum commences. No doubt at that time there musthave operated concurrent causes, in the fusion ofraces by some dominant people, and the rise of somegreat literary phenomena by which the form of lan-guage became arrested and fixed. As the inflectionalstage prevailed over the agglutinative, it is surprisingto see how much more boldly the original roots ofthe language project from the surface that concealsthem. In the old fragments and proverbs of the pre-

ceding stage the monosyllables which compose thoseroots vanish amidst words of enormous length, com-prehending whole sentences from which no one partcan be disentangled from the other and employedseparately. But when the inflectional form of languagebecame so far advanced as to have its scholars and

grammarians, they seem to have united in extirpat-ing all such polysynthetical or polysyllabic monsters,


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as devouring invaders of the aboriginal forms. Wordsbeyond three syllables became proscribed as barba-

rous, and in proportion as the language grew thussimplified it increased in strength, in dignity, and insweetness. Though now very compressed in sound, itgains in clearness by that compression. By a single let-ter, according to its position, they contrive to expressall that with civilised nations in our upper world it

takes the waste, sometimes of syllables, sometimes ofsentences, to express. Let me here cite one or two in-stances: An (which I will translate man), Ana (men);the letter s is with them a letter implying multitude,according to where it is placed; Sana means mankind;Ansa, a multitude of men. The prefix of certain let-ters in their alphabet invariably denotes compoundsignifications. For instance, Gl (which with them is asingle letter, as this a single letter with the Greeks) atthe commencement of a word infers an assemblageor union of things, sometimes kindred, sometimes

dissimilaras Oon, a house; Gloon, a town (i.e. , anassemblage of houses). Ata is sorrow; Glata, a publiccalamity. Aur-an is the health or wellbeing of a man;Glauran, the well-being of the state, the good of thecommunity; and a word constantly in their mouths isA-glauran, which denotes their political creedviz.,

that the first principle of a community is the good ofall. Aub is invention; Sila, a tone in music. Glaubsila,


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ing, as the reader will see later, contempt. The closestrendering I can give to it is our slang term, bosh;

and thus Koom-Posh may be loosely rendered Hol-low-Bosh. But when Democracy or Koom-Posh de-generates from popular ignorance into that popularpassion or ferocity which precedes its decease, as (tocite illustrations from the upper world) during theFrench Reign of Terror, or for the fifty years of the

Roman Republic preceding the ascendancy of Augus-tus, their name for that state of things is Glek-Nas. Ekis strifeGlek, the universal strife. Nas, as I beforesaid, is corruption or rot; thus Glek-Nas may be con-strued, the universal strife-rot. Their compoundsare very expressive; thus, Bodh being knowledge, andToo, a participle that implies the action of cautiouslyapproaching,Too-bodh is their word for Philoso-phy; Pah is a contemptuous exclamation analogousto our idiom, stuff and nonsense; Pah-bodh (liter-ally, stuff-and-nonsense-knowledge) is their term for

futile or false philosophy, and applied to a species ofmetaphysical or speculative ratiocination formerly invogue, which consisted in making inquiries that couldnot be answered, and were not worth making; such,for instance, as, Why does an An have five toes to hisfeet instead of four or six? Did the first An, created

by the All-Good, have the same number of toes as hisdescendants? In the form by which an An will be rec-


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ognised by his friends in the future state of being, willhe retain any toes at all, and, if so, will they be mate-

rial toes or spiritual toes? I take these illustrations ofPah-bodh, not in irony or jest, but because the veryinquiries I name formed the subject of controversyby the latest cultivators of that science4000 yearsago.

In the declension of nouns I was informed that an-

ciently there were eight cases (one more than in theSanskrit Grammar); but the effect of time has beento reduce these cases, and multiply, instead of these

varying terminations, explanatory prepositions. Atpresent, in the Grammar submitted to my study, therewere four cases to nouns, three having varying termi-nations, and the fourth a differing prefix.

. .

Nom. An, Man. Nom. Ana, Men.

Dat. Ano, to Man. Dat. Anoi, to Men.

Ac. Anan, Man. Ac. Ananda, Men.

Voc. Hil-An, O Man. Voc. Hil-Ananda, O Men.

In the elder inflectional literature the dual form ex-istedit has long been obsolete.

The genitive case with them is also obsolete; thedative supplies its place: they say the House toa Man,instead of the House ofa Man. When used (sometimes

in poetry), the genitive in the termination is the sameas the nominative; so is the ablative, the preposition


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that marks it being a prefix or suffix at option, andgenerally decided by ear, according to the sound of

the noun. It will be observed that the prefix Hil marksthe vocative case. It is always retained in addressinganother, except in the most intimate domestic rela-tions; its omission would be considered rude: justas in our old forms of speech in addressing a king itwould have been deemed disrespectful to say King,

and reverential to say O King. In fact, as they haveno titles of honour, the vocative adjuration suppliesthe place of a title, and is given impartially to all. Theprefix Hil enters into the composition of words thatimply distant communications, as Hil-ya, to travel.

In the conjugation of their verbs, which is muchtoo lengthy a subject to enter on here, the auxiliary

verb Ya, to go, which plays so considerable a part inthe Sanskrit, appears and performs a kindred office,as if it were a radical in some language from whichboth had descended. But another auxiliary of op-

posite signification also accompanies it and sharesits laboursviz., Zi, to stay or repose. Thus Ya en-ters into the future tense, and Zi in the preterite ofall verbs requiring auxiliaries. Yam, I goYiam, I maygoYani-ya, I shall go (literally, I go to go) Zam-poo-yan, I have gone (literally, I rest from gone). Ya, as a

termination, implies by analogy, progress, movement,efflorescence. Zi, as a terminal, denotes fixity, some-


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times in a good sense, sometimes in a bad, accordingto the word with which it is coupled. Iva-zi, eternal

goodness; Nan-zi, eternal evil. Poo (from) enters asa prefix to words that denote repugnance, or thingsfrom which we ought to be averse. Poo-pra, disgust;Poo-naria, falsehood, the vilest kind of evil. Poosh orPosh I have already confessed to be untranslatable lit-erally. It is an expression of contempt not unmixed

with pity. This radical seems to have originated frominherent sympathy between the labial effort and thesentiment that impelled it, Poo being an utterance inwhich the breath is exploded from the lips with moreor less vehemence. On the other hand, Z, when aninitial, is with them a sound in which the breath issucked inward, and thus Zu, pronounced Zoo (whichin their language is one letter), is the ordinary prefixto words that signify something that attracts, pleases,touches the heartas Zummer, lover; Zutze, love; Zu-zulia, delight. This indrawn sound of Z seems indeed

naturally appropriate to fondness. Thus, even in ourlanguage, mothers say to their babies, in defiance ofgrammar, Zoo darling; and I have heard a learnedprofessor at Boston call his wife (he had been onlymarried a month) Zoo little pet.

I cannot quit this subject, however, without observ-

ing by what slight changes in the dialects favoured bydifferent tribes of the same race, the original signifi-


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cation and beauty of sounds may become confusedand deformed. Zee told me with much indignation

that Zummer (lover) which, in the way she uttered it,seemed slowly taken down to the very depths of herheart, was, in some not very distant communities ofthe Vril-ya, vitiated into the half-hissing, half-nasal,wholly disagreeable, sound of Sbber. I thought tomyself it only wanted the introduction of nbefore u

to render it into an English word significant of the lastquality an amorous Gy would desire in her Zummer.

I will but mention another peculiarity in this lan-guage which gives equal force and brevity to its formsof expressions.

A is with them, as with us, the first letter of the al-phabet, and is often used as a prefix word by itselfto convey a complex id

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